New Orleans musicians Jeremy Phipps (trombone), Khris Royal (sax), Adam Dewalt (trumpet), DJ Raymond (bass) and John Key (drums) found themselves on the biggest of stages this past weekend when they backed Solange during her appearance on Saturday Night Live.

The R&B singer/songwriter, who has called the Crescent City home for a number of years now, has garnered widespread praise for her 2016 album, A Seat at the Table. Her new city-of-residence has no shortage of musical talents, and it appears she was keen on bringing some of them to a national audience.

“She had an open audition about a month and a half ago,” an audibly excited Phipps told OffBeat over the phone. “She had a bunch of horn players from New Orleans there. I guess I beat the other trombone players….It went silent for a little while, we didn’t know what was going on. Then all of a sudden I got a call asking if could do SNL the next Saturday.”

Phipps—who plays in local funk-soul outfit Miss Mojo and fronts his own new project People Museum—and the other musicians cleared their schedules in order to make time for daily rehearsals leading up to the performance. A pair of practice shows followed, including a secret gig at The New Orleans Jazz Market and another at Brooklyn’s Good Room, before Solange and the band gathered at NBC Studios for the big performance.

“It’s pretty terrifying, but once you get into it it becomes comfortable,” Phipps explained. “Then it’s over just like that. This big experience kind of fades away. I was all jittery after because, whoa, 20 million people just saw what I did.”

“There’s no words to describe playing on SNL,” Phipps added. “You can say so much, but it won’t describe the range of emotions, the nervousness, the excitement.”

Solange performed two tracks from A Seat at the Table, “Cranes in the Sky” and “Don’t Touch My Hair,” on Saturday Night Live. You can check out videos of both tunes below.

“Her album has some hints of New Orleans,” Phipps noted. “It has Master P on it. It has horns on it. There’s some New Orleans elements on it, so I think it was important for her to get New Orleans musicians involved.”

“Cranes in the Sky”: